* Earlier, I wrote a post about why the NYTM elections are important. Check that here!

What does the NYTM stand for, anyway?

It means something different to everyone, but it’s safe to say that everyone involved shares a not just a fascination with the possibilities of the incredible advancements of the last few decades, but a desire to actively participate in making those possibilities into realities. We seek to either build new technologies ourselves, or, in many cases, we seek to apply these new technologies to solve problems in ways never before possible. Either way, we’re united by our shared interests.

Just how big a deal could this be?

New York City is the greatest city in the world. All eyes are on us. When we do something here, the world sees it, and learns from it. The example we set affects not just our own local community, but the leaders of communities in cities all around the world as well.

The NYTM has managed to attract nearly 30,000 people to join its ranks, without even trying. How many more out there might join if we decided to reach out to those we might not yet have reached? Could the NYTM have 100,000 members? More?

The person who gets elected to the board this year will complete a process that began four years ago to establish a governing body around the organization. With this 13th member in place, there will finally be a complete board. This person represents a crucial vote among a small group of people who collectively are charged with representing the interests of the greater community as a whole.

With a complete leadership structure in place, a few years of development and growing pains under our belts, and a growing membership, the NY Tech Meetup is in a position to facilitate a tremendous impact, locally and around the world.

What would I focus on improving?

The NYTM could go in a lot of directions. I’d work with the board to help the organization in a few key ways:

Activating greater participation: Aside from attending the monthly event, the vast majority of the members of the NYTM community has been largely dormant. Every time something more is asked of the community, however, the response is incredible. When our own interests were challenged, we rallied in protest of SOPA and PIPA with a force that could not be ignored. When the city at large was in need of our help, we stepped up and continue to step up to help our fellow citizens.

We’re still just beginning to scratch the surface of what we can accomplish as a community and as a constituency. I intend to apply my experience building communities to the membership of the NY Tech Meetup, so there will be more opportunities for people to participate and get more involved.

There are a lot of ways to be more active. In particular, I want to focus on:

Fostering job creation: While gathering to demo new tech is fun, it’s also serious business. There’s nearly universal agreement that the opportunities created by recent technological advances hold the answers to how we’re going to dig ourselves out of the economic slump we’ve been in. These answers aren’t just going to shop up themselves; we have to seize upon these opportunities together if we want to make real progress. The NY tech community is in a position to play an active role in facilitating the creation of new jobs as a result of these opportunities.

To accomplish these things, we must engage people in a way that empowers the community to participate in what’s happening. To that end, in my work with the Board, I’ll commit to practicing:

Opening up the organization: I’ll let you know when a board meeting is coming up. I’ll ask for you to voice your opinions and concerns, and I’ll report back on how things went. Hold your elected board members accountable!

Why should I be on the board?

I hate tooting my own horn, but if you’re considering voting for me, then this is what you need to know: I’ll apply my experience building communities to the organization. When I’m not running New Work City, I am working with my friends Alex and Adam, the people behind the legendary coworking space IndyHall, on the Community Builder Masterclass. When we built the course, we developed a methodology for organizing and leading communities that’s been successfully applied many times over. As a board member, I’ll apply this approach to the organization itself. I have solid relationships with many members of the board already. They’re good people whom I can get to work with right away. Knowing I’d be on a board with people I share understanding and trust with goes a long way in making me confident that I can be an effective board member. I’m already in the business of making NYC better. As the cofounder and Mayor of New Work City, I’m already committed to working for the best interests of my community and my city. While I will continue to do so regardless of the election results, being elected to the Board will help to better unify my ongoing efforts with those of the NYTM moving forward.

My relationship with the NYTM

In early 2007, I was working from home, living with my parents, saving up some bucks out on Long Island. I had zero friends in NYC.

That all changed when I discovered Meetup.com, and in a particular the NY Tech Meetup. Before I knew it, I knew hundreds of people in the city, and was quickly becoming an active organizer of coworking communities, events, and even a Meetup group of my own.

Nearly six years, two coworking spaces, hundreds of events, a bunch of BarCamps, a couple of TEDx’s, some hackathons, a fake startup and a turntable dance party later, I find myself completely transformed by a world that welcomed me with open arms.

Since then, I’ve been a part of the NYTM’s Community Committee, an active organizer of NY Tech Responds, and acted as the unofficial afterparty organizer for several years before making it official, and then handing it off to the organization to run. I’ve attended dozens of Tech Meetups and have stepped up to play a more active role in Tech Meetup-related efforts at every possible opportunity. New Work City has also been a steadfast host of the official NYTM Simulcast event since its inception nearly one year ago, allowing an extra 100 people to participate in the monthly event every month.

The NY Tech Meetup changed my life forever. I know I’m far from the only one, which is why I care so much about the future of the organization. There are countless others out there whose lives are waiting to be changed forever, and I want to see this community help as many of them as possible– just as it helped me.

If you’d like, you can help me out with a tweet or similar social media broadcast. If you know other members of the Tech Meetup personally, it would be awesome if you pointed them here and asked what they thought. If you’re eligible, you should vote. And if you’d like to vote for me, I’d be very grateful. I can promise you your vote will be in good hands. Cheers!

Tonight, the NY Tech Meetup will open voting for the 13th and final seat on its Board of Directors. When this final board member is elected, it will complete a four year transition set in motion by Meetup CEO Scott Heiferman when he stepped down as the organizer in 2008. According to the New York Observer, 590 votes were cast for 17 candidates in the first board vote in 2010. In 2011, 471 votes were cast for 20 candidates. This year, we have only six candidates in the running.

Why has participation been so relatively low among the members of an organization that’s so popular? The easy answer is that, for a long time, people had little reason to think of the NY Tech Meetup as much more than a really great monthly event. If you can manage to snag a ticket, you’re sure to see some really great new tech and meet some awesome new people in the crowd, but that’s about it. Why should people care about who’s behind it? When the topic of the election comes up, you can see people switching off. You can almost hear people shouting “get to the demo”!

Since the last election in late 2011, a few things have changed. The still very young nonprofit organization that’s been formed behind the monthly event has started to assert itself in a more meaningful way, and in a relatively short time it’s not only demonstrated its potential, it’s had a huge impact on the city and potentially the nation.

The first big win was in the wake of rising opposition to SOPA and PIPA. If there were ever an opportunity for the NYTM to assert itself, this was it. In a matter of days, the NYTM organized a rally outside the offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, who were both supporters of the bill– at least, until over a thousand of us showed up to tell them why they should reconsider.

They heard us. Literally. Defeating those bills was hugely important to the future of a lot of things, and the NYTM played a non-trivial part in rallying its community to action.

More recently, the organization stepped up in the wake of Sandy, rallying nearly 1,000 people to volunteer and acting as the de facto technology switchboard for Sandy relief efforts throughout the city. Having had the opportunity to help make this effort happen, I was able to witness firsthand just how much impact an organization like the NY Tech Meetup could have not just in a crisis, but in many contexts where the non-tech world and the tech world might find themselves with common interests.

The Tech Meetup’s role in defeating SOPA/PIPA and in aiding Sandy relief efforts demonstrated just how important its role can be in the city and in society at large. These happened to be two crises thrust upon us by circumstance, but in both cases an otherwise dormant community was brought to life, and the results were remarkable.

As the NY Tech Meetup moves forward, it has an opportunity to establish itself not just as the representative body of in increasingly important constituency of technology makers in the country’s greatest city, but also as a critical link between that constituency and the rest of the city.

That’s always been the case, but this year we saw two very real examples of why that’s important.

The solutions to our economic woes and the path to our future is undoubtedly centered on the actions of the people building new technology and those who are using those technologies in new ways. The people who lead the NY Tech Meetup will have not just an opportunity but a responsibility to guide those actions.

Holding public elections for four of the 13 board seats is an experiment in engaging and involving the public in this discussion. If people haven’t understood why voting was important before, it should be clear now.

A meet and greet with the candidates is scheduled for Monday, December 17 at 6:00pm at Projective Space LES. Get more details and RSVP here. Shortly after that, the polls will open, and campaigning will take place until the polls close on Saturday, December 22.

I’ll be one of the candidates you’ll see there Monday night. You’ll also meet the other candidates, who are all good people who have done great things for the community.

Everything I’ve discussed above only scratches the surface of why I believe the Tech Meetup and this election are important. I’ll dig more into that over the course of the next week, but before we can do that, we must first agree that this election and this organization’s future are important, worth talking about, and worth participating in shaping.